Roatan Arrival

We arrive in Roatan with no further difficulties and arrive in Coxen Hole. Thou we round West End just as darkness falls and realize we will arrive in the dark. As the light fades I get my bearings and watching the depth sounder I caustiouly guide myself in, everyonce in awhile as the bottom rises up to meet us I bear off. We get into were we think we should be and anchor the best we can. The next morning we hear that people were taking bets on us on whether or not we would run aground!

Morning finds us in very shallow water, it is getting rough and the bottom of the boat hits everyonce in awhile, we await as we should a sign from the Port Captain to come ashore to check in. Of course just as we sit down to eat breakfast we see someone on the dock motioning to us to bring the boat over and tie up. The dock is perpendicular to the waves, which are pretty rough by now, but I manage to come alongside. It is a nightmare keeping Aphrodite from smashing into it, but luckily they see our problem and waste no time in inspecting us and getting our paperwork done. As I am trying to wrestle Aphrodite away from the dock going forward I hear someone warn me of shallow water where I’m going, almost in a panic I reverse the engine and somehow back Aphrodite off without smashing the bowsprit into the dock, whee.

We start having a problem with the Starter, it gets wet and dies. Dad once again meets some con artist in town who will fix all of our problems. He does show us how to get into the inner harbor and a better anchorage. We tear out the starter the 1st of many times, it is a backbreaking job. And Roberto? takes it in. He also tells us that he works in a Hotel up in Brick Bay and that they are having a party that night, and he will treat us to free drinks. I don’t expect he really expected us to show up. But Tina is amazing, Brick Bay is about 8 miles and Tina and I take off walking down the road in the middle of the night. Soon however we do get a ride in a back of a truck and get I guess within 2 miles of our destination. The rest walking down this dirt road in the middle of the jungle in a strange place in pitch black was exhilarating to me. We finally get to the hotel and go in. They have a band playing country music, the women singer is very very bad and very very huge. Between us Tina and I have enough money to buy one beer apiece, Roberto who we see momentarily bussing tables seems to forgotten his promise of free drinks. We don’t stay long and manage to get another ride back into Coxen Hole.

Roberto show up with the starter and wants to charge us $50 US for cleaning it, Dad goes thru the roof, I can’t remember if we gave him the whole amount or not, but thinking back now, maybe that wasn’t so bad, what else were we to do and that’s economics for you.

Brick Bay sounds like a nice place to visit and so we shove off, as we come close to it’s tricky entrance thru the reef we get overtaken by a thunder squall and get pushed way out to sea. When it passes and we start heading back in we realize that in our inexperience getting thru this reef is going to be real scary. According to the chart there are markers but they aren’t to be found. We see a little skiff heading out towards us and aboard we meet Jerry and OJ for the first time. They guide us in thru the little dogleg in the reef and into the little harbor in which we anchor. They are having a little barbecue down on the point and we are invited. This is our first experience with these crazy people. Tina says she just wants to relax and read so we leave her there and OJ tows us in Microdite thru the mangroves down to this little house and dock. There we meet another Tina, who is OJ’s wife. I haven’t had a shower in many days, At Tina’s suggestion I rig a shower out of the garden hose and get clean, it is wonderful and a little exhilarating to be naked in front of a strange woman, guess thats the exhibitionist in me.

After a few rums and a swim it is getting late and they tow us back to Aphrodite, we get a little taste of just how crazy these people are when I’m holding the tow rope in my hands and they take off like a bat out of hell, we are zooming along almost planing, it takes all of my strength to hold onto the rope and we have to steer by leaning. I don’t know what Suzy and the old man was thinking during this ride, but it was fun to me. Finally I lose control and we go zooming off into the mangroves! bash!!!

We spend some lazy days there in Brick bay and get to know Jerry, OJ, Tina and their friend Hippie John. Jerry is the caretaker of this little marina stuck beside the CSY charter place. He is from England and very proper but listening to some of his and OJ’s exploits I bet they could write a book. They were in La Cieba one night and convinced a taxi driver that Jerry was an English Lord and OJ his bodyguard, the driver took them all over La Cieba for free showing them all the good places. In one bar the owner got up in front of the whole place and introduced Jerry to the crowd as Royalty. I don’t think they paid for a dime of anything. OJ is one of those people, con artist I don’t know. He convinced a firm in San Francisco that he was, I really forget, some sort of financially wizard and they hired him, of course he wasn’t but he was smart enough to do the work and was very successful. Tina and him ended up in Roatan after running their boat "Nomad" up on a reef outside of Rosario Banks and losing their rudder. It is a classic wooden boat built in the 20’S a bigger version of Doreens boat (can’t remember again what kind)

Tina and him seem to have and interesting relationship, I am not for sure positive but I think that they a pretty free because it seems to me that their friend Hippie John is more than a friend to her. But I like them alot and after we left they did correspond a couple of times, seems like they ended up in Florida and OJ bullshitting his way into the fast lane.

One night they take me into French Harbor in the dingy, in Roatan they have all these little canals that cut thru the mangroves and connect all the bays almost all the way to Port Royal. These canals are very shallow but if you get it right no problem with our outboard, the local cuycas draw much less water. Then it is a dash across brick bay skirting a couple of reefs and then into French harbor. I don’t have much money and even thou I am hungry I don’t eat anything, which later I regret because I have an empty stomach and OJ intends to get me drunk. And that he does, he buys me some of this stuff called "Cana Bravo" which is made from cane and is somewhat like pure grain rum. They buy it in a little flask and it tastes like flowers. Pretty soon I don’t know if I am coming or going. I have hazy recollections of being towed from bar to bar and then laying my head down on the nearest table. One place was so strange it was hard to believe, the ceiling was so low that I even had to duck down. By and by I became more sobar while everyone else was drunk. So by the time it was time to go home I am the only one capable of getting us home in the dory. Without Tina it would have been completely hopeless but she got in the front and we took off into the blackness. Amazingly we find the canal and thread our way thru that, then I make a course which if my memory served me well would take us to the first marker around the reef. Even thou I am going slow the marker appears ahead so fast it scares me but great navigation across a mile of black to almost run into it! Then I turn off to make the next leg and by and by we make it back to the marina. That experience was a real turn on to me it felt almost surrealistic.

From Brick Bay we head on over to Port Royal, in the Bay Islands guide it says that Eric Anderson lives there and always has warm hospitality for cruisers and his album of all the visiting yachts is famous. Sure enough after a harrowing entrance thru the reef, they are all harrowing to us, Eric shows up with his little book and we sign it. He however doesn’t seem very friendly to us, later we find out it is because we aren’t rich enough to interest him any anything he might extort from us. Tina and I do go over to say hello one morning on our way to the beach on the other side of the island. (What is Eric’s wifes name????) She says good morning and yes Eric will probably be home later and leaves us sitting on the dock. Tina feels uncomfortable as I and we continue over to the beach at Camp Bay.

What a beautiful deserted beach for miles and miles white sands and total seclusion. Tina I play in the water, walk along the rocks, she by this time is driving me nuts with lust but you can’t have everything. We walk along and when its time to go we cut over to where we think the road is and run into some Breadfruit trees. Getting a couple we do find the road and head on back. We get to the dock and Dad and Suzy are gone with the dingy so we strip leaving the camera and our clothes hide in the bushes and swim out to Aphrodite.

That night a real thunderwapper hits, with winds probably gusting to 50 mph Dad and I have the engine on trying to keep the weight off the anchor. But it is gone quickly but boy do I hate those things. And it is always a 3 am in the morning when you are asleep that things happen on a boat, why is that?

Time goes by and we start thinking about going back to Belize, My Dad really likes Roatan and it seems to him that things are more happening there in the way of opportunities and such. I really like Belize better but they decide that they will plan to come back and stay for awhile and see if they can get anything going as far as working.

Oh woe! Dad and I run out of tobacco, all we have is a couple of Honduras cigars that look like little turds and taste like little turds. We crumble out the tobacco to roll up as cigarettes and we find a half eaten pumpkin seed and little bits of driftwood in them. My memory is shot but we enter into Belize again this time in the southern keys at a place Tina and Noddy go to all the time Huntington Cay. We get the Lighthouse Keeper to guide us into the anchorage because we draw so much water. It seems like the whole contingent of the English Army is on this cay, chalky white bodies with sunburned faces and necks abound all over the place. We also meet this American character on this little 24 ft tupperware boat, who is a round sort of guy, we trade him some tapes and this is were I hear Joan Armatrain for the first time. We run into this guy everyonce in awhile kinda of a slob.

Back in Placentia Dad and Suzy plan for our move and I continue to enjoy the way of life here. Harry takes us in Aphrodite into Big Creek to fill up with fresh water, Dad trades a fifth of whisky for two stalks of bananas, the great white trader strikes again! Soon we are sick to death with banana pancakes, banana bread , banana rums banana banana bnanananananannaaahh.